Seriously, i have NO IDEA!!! What do you people see in this game!?

Visual rating: 3/10
all i saw were some pretty backgrounds, and characters that look like they were the greatest 3d acheivements on a damn SNES! The CG looks great, the models look just like syphon filter 3, except syphon filter did not have as a nice texturing, but then again this is CG, not the actual game models you play with. THOSE are a damn joke! they are boxy, the dude with the huge sword..well, his hands, seem slightly separate from his body, the sword twirl gets old after the first three battles you win, the enemies are stupid looking, and the attacks are worse! THe most laughable thing is when they try and add actual facial expressions to these people, OMG that is just so funny because they do it so badly!

Sound: 2/10
They have 5 tracks, each song about 3-4 minutes in length, and i swear, if i didn't turn off the sound and put on my favorite radio station i would go INSANE!!! a damn game that has nice CG cut scenes and spans 3 freaken disks should not have mysic that sucks so badly. and don't give my any BS that you are supposed to play the game with no sound and the radio on, the sound is supposed to help emerse you in the experience, not water it down!

Gameplay: 1/10
OH wow...it's just horrible, and i have played some bad turn based games (anyone remember pokemon?). the random battles are annoying, especially if you have a 10:00 time limit before you bomb goes off. at least turn that damn fearure off during that one part!!! DAMN!!! as if that weren't bad enough, the controls are both clunky and bad. on screen you character wanders around, and you get lost easily becuase the background is drawn so well you have no freaken clue what is an exit, and what isn't. and if your charcter is not being hung up on an invisible wall, or box, or...air, then we would have slightly less of a problem. in battle, using hte same repedative attacks so early in the game is just not right. sword guy uses bolt, black dude using gatling gun, and everyone wins no matter what. the largest ammount of strategy is knowing when to use elixer and potion. wow...so hard...the ps1 is capable of so much more....

Story: ? (it's gonna be low)/10
What is the story? i know that like 40 minutes into a game like this you should know a bit more than you do, and on top of that, what is with the text boxes? i have seen what the ps1 can do, and guess what!? it supports VOICE!!! some voice and subtitles would have gone a long way in helping me give a damn about reactors sapping away the planets magical energy or life fore or whatever. as far as "character building" goes...i have no seen any. and to think, i thought i was going to get something good when i read so many rave reviews. i want to get into final fantasy, i really do, but clearly VII is NOT the game for me.

OVERALL SCORE: 3/10
Why do they like it so much? how could this game have made final fantasy go mainstream and become a masterpiece for the ps1 that like everyone who has ever liked turn based RPG/stragety should own? the graphics suck, the sound is worse, the gameplay is horrible, and i am doubtful anyone really cares about the plot, or cannot stand the first three to the extent they play through enough to start giving a damn.

so plese, fanatical fans of this board, just tell me, why? be civilized about it, i have written like 5 paragraphs from the heart about why this is not a good game, and why it should have never made FF so popular. but now you, the people who like it, tell me why you think i am wrong, or better yet, people who hate it tell me why i am right. or find some possiton between the two. but just tell me why....